Bissau neighbours back parliament chief for president

May 11, 2012|Reuters

BISSAU, May 11 (Reuters) - The 15-state ECOWAS group of WestAfrican states backed Guinea-Bissau's parliament speaker onFriday to head the transition back to civilian rule after anApril 12 coup, a decision immediately rejected within thecountry's main political party.

The tiny coastal state of Guinea-Bissau has long been amajor trafficking hub for Latin American cocaine into Europe,with key army leaders suspected by the United States and othersof being implicated in the narcotics trade.

An ECOWAS delegation to the capital Bissau issued astatement declaring that, according to the constitution,parliament speaker Manuel Sherifo Nhamadjo should assume thefunction of interim president.

However an official for the PAIGC party of former primeminister Carlos Gomes Junior, favourite to win a presidentialrun-off that had been scheduled to take place days after thecoup, said it would not recognise Nhamadjo.

"The PAIGC ... awaits the view of the U.N. Security Councilon this matter," PAIGC Secretary-General Augusto Olivaz toldreporters after the ECOWAS statement, issued in the early hoursof the morning after 10 hours of closed-door talks.

However it was not clear whether Olivaz's stance representedthat of the broader PAIGC party, many of whose members have saidthey are favourable to Nhamadjo. Gomes Junior, who was initiallyheld by coup leaders, is believed to be in Ivory Coast.

The coup came after weeks of tensions between the Bissaumilitary and an Angolan force of several hundred troops sent tothe country to help reform the army, which has repeatedlyinterfered in politics since 1974's independence from Portugal.

Angola has said it plans to pull the force out. ECOWAS hassubsequently said it could deploy its own military advisers totake over the baton, but so far neither a clear date for theAngolan pull-out nor ECOWAS entry has been set and the idea of ajoint ECOWAS-Angola force has been mooted.

ECOWAS has said it believed Army Chief of Staff GeneralAntonio Indjai was the leader of the shadowy self-styledMilitary Command that seized power in the coup. However thejunta said Indjai had been deposed during the coup.